Director, Content Marketing & Strategy

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain a university-wide content strategy that balances brand storytelling with SEO performance, ensuring content serves search and AI visibility.
• Lead the editorial vision and information architecture of Chapman’s centralized storytelling platform connecting audiences with the people, experiences, and outcomes that make the university distinctive.
• Own the ongoing content management of the storytelling platform including story sourcing, publishing cadence, tagging/taxonomy for discoverability, and platform performance against reach and engagement goals.
• Oversee a content calendar and workflow that balances always-on organic content needs with news updates and other campaign-driven content.
• Establish editorial standards, style guidelines, and a content governance model spanning web copy, blog/news content, program pages, landing pages, and Chapman’s storytelling hub.
• Write and edit compelling articles and feature stories that strengthen Chapman University’s brand and support strategic storytelling initiatives.
• Ensure all content reflects brand voice, accessibility standards, and institutional accuracy.
• Own SEO strategy, including technical SEO , on-page optimization, keyword architecture, and organic search performance across chapman.edu properties.
• Conduct ongoing technical audits (crawlability, site speed, structured data, mobile performance, etc.) in partnership with web, IS&T, and vendors.
• Conduct content gap analysis and competitive research to identify underserved topics, ranking opportunities, and areas where competitor institutions are outperforming Chapman in search and AI visibility.
• Build and maintain keyword and topic-cluster strategies aligned to institutional priorities and enrollment funnels, structuring content to establish topical authority across priority program and subject areas.
• Monitor rankings, organic traffic, and conversion performance; report on KPIs and translate findings into actionable roadmaps.
• Stay ahead of search algorithm changes (including AI-driven search/ LLM discovery shifts) and adjust strategy and university education around these shifts proactively.
• Serve as SMC’s subject-matter authority on SEO and content, ensuring organic strategy is represented in enrollment marketing initiatives rather than treated as an afterthought.